Pioneer LGBTQ activists decry Pride parade's ban on uniformed police

Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun12.05.2017

If Pride officials believe in inclusiveness, says Michael Kalmuk (left, in 2004), then they ‘cannot be exclusive of people we don’t like.’ Kalmuk and Kelly Montfort (centre) in 2004 were the first same-sex couple to be officially blessed in the worldwide Anglican Church. Priest Margaret Marquardt performed the rite.Steve Bosch
/ Vancouver Sun

Comically, early gay liberation activist Stan Persky wonders if Pride now has to ban 'uniform fetishists' from marching. (Photo: Persky in front of the 'Wings of Mexico' at the Embassy of Mexico, Berlin)
/ Vancouver Sun

“It seems to me a shoot-yourself-in-the-foot mistake for the Pride Parade to adopt a perspective about the police that isn’t widely shared within the gay community,” said long-time rights advocate Stan Persky, a retired philosophy professor and award-winning author.

“The parade is supposedly emblematic of the spirit of inclusiveness. The presence of the police in the parade, and not simply guarding it from outside, is the result of a great deal of patient work over the years by the gay movement … to get police departments to relate to the gay community in a co-operative rather than adversarial manner.”

Andrea Arnot, executive director of the Vancouver Pride Society, said last week her group decided not to allow uniformed officers or police vehicles in the annual parade because some LGBTQ people are “uncomfortable” seeing officers because of historic police oppression. Police will be allowed to march only in plain clothes.

If Pride officials believe in inclusiveness, Kalmuk said, then they “cannot be exclusive of people we don’t like. If we cannot include our local police in the parade, then perhaps we should cancel the whole event.”

Vancouver Pride officials banned uniformed police after interventions from various chapters of Black Lives Matter who halted Toronto’s parade in 2016, demanding Pride organizers agreed to a list of conditions, including a ban on uniformed police. Police officers in Calgary, Ottawa and Toronto have also been warned to leave their uniforms at home if they wish to take part in Pride festivities.

Veteran Vancouver lesbian filmmaker Barbara Anderson, however, said the presence of uniformed female and male police officers in Pride parades “reminds society that, while in the past, the police arrested LGBTQ people, now there are consequences for hate crimes against us.”

“The symbol of law and order marching in solidarity with those who, in the past, had been criminalized, had their meeting places raided, their livelihoods threatened and their bodies beaten for their sexual orientation and gender fluidity is a powerful one,” said Anderson.

“We are making a statement about how far we have come as a society. That is what Pride should be all about.”

Persky, who has also been a director of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, believes Canadian Pride festival organizers have responded to Black Lives Matter in a way that does little to combat anti-homosexual prejudice.

“The problem with this bit of what’s known as “intersectional” partnering is that Black Lives Matter (BLM) insists that the Pride Parade adopt BLM’s thoroughly oppositional view of the police … That doesn’t reflect the LGBTQ’s community’s experience with the police, especially in Vancouver.”

Upon hearing that the (LGBT+) Pride Parade organization decided to ban police officers in uniform from participating in the 2018 annual parade, my first impulse was toward the comic.

Since many members-in-good-standing of the gay community are uniform-wearing enthusiasts, did this mean that Pride organizers were also planning to ban uniform fetishists who wore Vancouver Police Department (VPD) garb from marching in the parade?

If not, what’s to prevent march participants from “dressing up” and circumventing the political decision of the Pride organizers? It could even turn into a kind of game: who is merely parading in a VPD “costume” and who’s a real VPD officer now required to wear civvies? And is a VPD cop, now banned from wearing his or her uniform, allowed to appear in “drag”? The killjoy possibilities are endless.

I’m not a big fan of the Pride parade and tend to regard it as simply an event on the civic tourist bureau calendar, but I certainly don’t have anything against it. I belong to an earlier generation that invented Gay Liberation, and I don’t have much of a personal stake in the fate of the parade (unless someone wants to prevent the parade).

Still, the parade is supposedly emblematic of the spirit of inclusiveness, and the presence of the police in the parade (and not simply guarding it from outside) is the result of a great deal of patient work over the years by the gay movement and many Pride organizers to get police forces across Canada to take gay bashing seriously, to relate to the gay community in a cooperative rather than adversarial manner, and to directly endorse Pride by participating in the parade. Given the public character of the parade, having police participate in it contributes to combatting anti-homosexual prejudice.

This particular decision is the result of Pride parade’s attempt to include and support Canadian branches of Black Lives Matter (BLM). The only problem with this bit of what’s known as “intersectional” partnering is that BLM insists that the Pride Parade adopt BLM’s thoroughly oppositional view of the police.

While the LGBT+ community understands the arguments and experiences of BLM (both within society in general as well as within the gay community), it seems to me a shoot-yourself-in-the-foot political mistake for the Pride Parade to adopt a perspective about the police that isn’t widely shared within the gay community and that doesn’t reflect the LGBT+ community’s experience with the police (especially in Vancouver).

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Pioneer LGBTQ activists decry Pride parade's ban on uniformed police

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